There are circumstances in which it is not immoral to make certain threats, and there are circumstances in which it i...

Angelaon January 21, 2017

A vs C

Could you break down the correct answer choice and explain why A is inadequate here?

4 Replies

Mehranon February 3, 2017

@awashing the flaw here is combining two things because they share the necessary condition in common.

"There are circumstances in which it is not immoral to make certain threats . . . "

Sometimes: MCT ==> not IM

" . . . there are circumstances in which it is not immoral to ask for money or some other favor."

Sometimes: A4MorOF ==> not IM

The conclusion is, "there are circumstances in which it is not immoral to ask for money or a favor while making a threat."

Sometimes: A4MorOF & MCT ==> not IM

How can we combine these two? Just because they share the necessary condition, doesn't mean they can be combined.

(A) is not the same flaw as (A) is concluding that if neither a business event nor a social event, casual dress is not likely to be appropriate.

(C), on the other hand, is the exact same flaw.

"It is healthful to take drug A for headache . . ."

DA4H ==> H

". . . it is healthful to take drug B for headache."

DB4H ==> H

The conclusion is, "it is healthful to take drug A together with drug B for a headache."

DA4H & DB4H ==> H

Therefore, (C) would be the correct answer.

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Willon March 14 at 01:55AM

How did you know that not immoral would be the necessary condition and not the sufficient?

Jeremyon April 6 at 06:20PM

@Mehran, is E incorrect because it is combining two things because they share the sufficient condition in common? (As opposed to combining two things because they share the necessary condition, as the passage & answer choice C both do?)

Ravion May 13 at 09:06PM

@wills and @JeremyG,

Great questions.

@wills,

We know that 'not immoral' is in the necessary condition because ofthe way the sentences are structured.

"There are circumstances in which it is not immoral to make certain threats"

This means that sometimes making certain threats isn't immoral. Basedon this structure, we know that 'not immoral' goes in the necessarycondition since 'sometimes making certain threats' is what istriggering the conditional chain (so 'sometimes making certainthreats' goes in the sufficient condition).

"There are circumstances in which it is not immoral to ask for moneyor some other favor"

The same holds true for this sentence. Based on this structure, weknow that 'not immoral' goes in the necessary condition since'ask[ing] for money or some other favor' is what is triggering theconditional chain (so 'ask[ing] for money or some other favor' goes inthe sufficient condition).

@JeremyG,

(E) says, "The mountain roads are treacherous after it rains, and themountain streams are full after a rain. So, if the roads in themountains are treacherous, and the mountain streams are full, itsurely has rained recently."

The problem with (E) is that it's the wrong type of flaw. (E) confusessufficient and necessary conditions for each other. Raining is asufficient condition for making treacherous mountain roads. It'spossible there are other sufficient conditions for making treacherousmountain roads. We need an answer choice that matches the flaw of thestimulus (which is trying to combine two things that share a necessarycondition). This is why (E) doesn't work.

Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any more questions!

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